The chancellor George Osborne has announced in his budget that Museums and galleries are to get tax relief to help cover the costs of developing temporary or touring exhibitions. He also stated that museum VAT refunds will be extended to all museums and galleries that offer free entry. A consultation into the tax relief for temporary and touring exhibition costs will be launched this summer.
Alistair Brown from the Museum Association’s was “delighted” with the plan. Although he said Mr Osborne had failed to address “the fundamental problem of diminishing local authority funding”. The refund scheme, which allows organisations to “claim back VAT incurred on most goods and services purchased in order to grant free rights of admission to collections”, has previously only been available to national and university museums and galleries.
Other art related budget news confirmed a £20m pledge made in last year’s Autumn Statement to a “Great Exhibition of the North” and invited cities and towns in the North of England to bid to host the event, A pledge to support the British Library’s proposals to develop land to the north of its St Pancras site in London, an expansion of the Royal College of Art in Battersea, which the Treasury will spend £54m on between now and 2022, a £20m provision across 2016-17 and 2017-18 to fund the repair of cathedrals across Britain and a contribution of £5m to the Dundee V&A museum’s fundraising campaign